Can something broken ever truly be mended?

When Matt was little, their dad bought a classic car. A 1954 Sunbeam Talbot Mark II. Dad had ideas that he and Matt would do it up, repair, rebuild together. They never did, and the car festered in a garage.

I mean, Dad had just been through a divorce.

Now in their 30s, Matt would like to learn how to fix a car engine. They’d like to learn a bit more about Dad, and that time, when Dad and Mum split up. The time when Matt and Dad were closest.

Matt can’t do this alone, which is tricky for a solo show. That’s where Matt’s drag alter-ego Natalie Spanner comes in. She knows all about things that girls like Natalie know about. Like how to build an engine. About maintenance, care and repair.

Together, Matt and Natalie will try to ask, in an increasingly broken world, how might we repair ourselves, together?

Access

Please note there are no facilities for headset audio description in these performances.

Production Notes (a pre-recorded show introduction describing set, characters and visual elements of the show) will be made available for download on this event page one week prior to the performance date.

The artist has also integrated self-description into the performance.

These are work-in-progress performances and therefore are still in development.  This includes elements of accessibility.  We always appreciate feedback on access.  Please do not hesitate to get in touch via access@nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk.

Tickets are offered at subsidised or full price to all audience members.  There are no ‘qualifying criteria’ for a subsidised place.  If you can afford a full price ticket, please buy one, as this will support Amplify in continuing to offer free and subsidised development opportunities for artists across the Midlands region.

Matt Miller is a theatre maker, director and poet based in Nottingham who makes work about place, identity and ways of belonging. 

In 2014, Matt was selected as one of BBC Radio Three’s Verb New Voices and their poem River Monster, charting their history growing up in Tyneside, was broadcast on The Verb, and praised for ‘powers of urban storytelling’ (Ian McMillan) 

Through this program, Matt started working with Peader Kirk and they have since made two shows together. ‘Sticking’ (2016) performed to sold out audiences in Newcastle, Manchester and Durham, and Fitting (2018-2021) toured nationally. 

As a director, Matt has worked with UK theatre makers Louise White, Kieran Spiers and with Neal Pike on R&D and National Tour of Five Years. 

Much of Matt’s work, both as a writer and a director is rooted in autobiographical material. 

They have been an artist in residence at Alphabetti Theatre, was one of Live Theatre’s inaugural Live Lab Artists, and is a current member of Nottingham Playhouse’s Artist Development Programme Amplify. 

They also regularly engage in theatre and poetry education, and have worked with The Mighty Creatives, Writing East Midlands, University of Bedfordshire and others in this capacity. 

Peader Kirk is an Artist and Director working internationally in the fields of Performance and Sound Art. 

His work has recently been shown at The Southbank Centre and The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, The National Theatre of Greece in Athens, Academy of Fine Arts in Turin and The Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. 

Peader makes work that engages directly with communities to ask questions about how we meet amidst difference and how we create change. The scale of the work ranges from encounters in small rooms to large-scale public works in the urban environment. 

Peader trained as a director with Robert Lepage at the National Theatre, London and with Eugenio Barba at CPR, Wales. Peader works with The BBC as a part of their development programme for new writers and as a mentor for emerging artists with hÅb, Manchester and Arts Captiva Italy. 

His most recent academic publication was The Performative Museum and the site constructive work of Mkultra in Performance Research Journal published by Routledge. 

Production Notes

Part of Queer Up Duck!